


INTO THE WASTES

by corvid314



Series: HALF-LIFE: ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE [1]
Category: Half-Life
Genre: Other, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:41:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26571622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corvid314/pseuds/corvid314
Summary: Cross over to the western hemisphere of the Earth, now a hostile wasteland. Inspired by Marc Laidlaw's vignettes. https://valvearchive.com/laidlaw-vault/
Series: HALF-LIFE: ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1932634





	INTO THE WASTES

**Author's Note:**

> Written for HALF-LIFE 2: ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE. You might find it odd that your character pulls out a gun - this is all from the perspective of a Civil Protection officer.

While waiting at the platform, you hear the shrill sound of the Wasteland Train moving across the tracks. The train slices into your view like a rusted knife, screeching to a halt directly in front of the platform. The train itself is a different color - it's not unlike the Razor trains; it's not painted a cold, unfeeling grey-black color scheme - it's a sickly brown. Just looking at it makes you feel sick to your stomach. The doors to your section hiss open, and you step inside. The doors hiss shut as the train begins its crawl forth, and the City 11 train station slowly slides past your view as your journey begins.

The train car is a decrepit, decaying, ugly mess. Perhaps one of the Combine's earlier attempts at adapting to the human anatomy, the seats are metal, and are just a little too short for you to lay on them to comfortably sleep. Shutters guard the windows of the train cars- not unlike the passenger cars used around the Eastern regions of the Earth, though what were they protecting the trains from? Was the bartender really not joking? Are things really that bad in the West? Tattered, peeled off propaganda posters promise a brighter future, but the state of the train car makes you think otherwise.

You lay your head to rest, the clattering of the train tracks lulling you to sleep. You are suddenly jerked awake by the sound of someone - no, some _thing_ latching on the train car. You reach for your sidearm and aim for the creature as it smashes part of the plexiglass window. Citric-smelling, noxious air flows inside of the train, and you gag as you inhale it. One of your comrades who just happened to be wearing a mask blasts the alien creature away from the window, and the shutters hiss shut, sealing away the crack. You regain your composure, and shuffle towards the window. It's a harrowing sight. What used to be the Atlantic Ocean is now nothing more than a dried-up patch of dead earth, devoid of any life. Carcasses of old-world military and civilian marine vessels are scattered around the dried up ocean alongside the bleached bones of whales. Some have been picked clean, leaving only their frames and shells intact, some still untouched after the Seven Hour War. Aircraft carriers blasted in half with corroded fighter planes and helicopters still waiting on the flight deck. The only thing that seems relatively new in the wastes are the additions of giant pipelines and train tracks, most likely built in order to supply the Combine-controlled safe havens with material the Combine might need. You return to your seat, a million thoughts clouding your mind. You do not remember any of this. A majority of the people have seem to forgotten about environmental destruction at this scale, but... Why? You find no answers to your questions, and shortly after, you drift to sleep.

You are awakened by the shrill sound of the train slowing down. You approach the window again, and you are met with an incredible sight. Bulldozers have pushed a good chunk of the old world into mountains of garbage, ready to be processed by the Combine. Ravines full of both trash and corpses of aliens. A giant concrete and metal wall safeguarding a city, with alien creatures both familiar and new hurling themselves at the electric fences only to meet their demise. Some aliens try to clamber up the walls, only to meet their end at the barrel of an autogun firing relentlessly at them.

Before entering the city proper, you pass through an old depot. It's still operational - maintenance workers are conducting repairs on newly-arrived train cars, cremators are cleaning up the carcasses of alien creatures who somehow made it inside of the depot past the automated security. You feel... Somewhat safe.

The train finally pulls up into the train station. Before the doors hiss open, a loudspeaker located inside the train cabin crackles on, and the synthesized voice of a woman coldly announces:

**"Now arriving: City 9. Please keep your respirator on at all times."**


End file.
